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Title Needful Things

Author	Stephen King
Country	USA
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror
Publisher	Signet
Released	1991
Pages	792
ISBN	ISBN 0-451-17281-7

Needful Things is a horror/black comedy novel written by Stephen King in 1991.

Contents 1 Plot 2 About the book 3 Connections 3.1 References to other King works in Needful Things 3.2 References to other works in Needful Things 4 Film 5 Trivia 6 External links

The story is set in the small fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine, where a new shop named "Needful Things" opens, to the curiosity of the townspeople. One by one, they start to come into the shop, drawn there by something they want more than anything else. In young Brian Rusk's case, it's a Sandy Koufax baseball card with Brian's name signed by the ball player. In Danforth "Buster" Keeton's case, it's a machine that simulates a horse race, and will, if each tin horse is named for the participants in actual, future races, correctly predict the winner. They are all greeted by the seemingly kind old man, Leland Gaunt, and they all ignore the sign Leland has in his store, "Caveat emptor". When they realize that they can't buy the object of their desire, Leland offers them a trade — perform a small "favor" for him, in the form of a prank on someone else in the town, and the object is theirs. These betrayals and pranks (some of which deceptively seem to be harmless) gradually increase in frequency and intensity until the entire town is in complete chaos.

The only person not caught up in what Leland has to offer is Castle Rock Sheriff Alan Pangborn. At the beginning of the story, he's simply interested in figuring out who did certain acts of vandalism. As the story progresses, however, he suspects that they all have something to do with Leland. Things begin to come to a head when Leland manages to seduce Alan's girlfriend Polly with a necklace, or azka, that somehow relieves her of the pain in her arthritic hands. It is explained that Leland has, for centuries, been wandering through different countries and selling people useless junk. These objects appear to the buyer to be whatever they want most. It is also implied several times that Leland is Satan, but never outright stated. Vague references to this include the fact that he enters people's dreams when they don't fulfil their "deals", and his liking of devil's food cake. Alan eventually manages to face Leland down, forcing Leland to leave town — but not without having provoked the destruction of most of the town and the deaths of many of the townspeople, including the aforementioned Brian Rusk and Danforth Keeton.

Needful Things also marks a watershed in King's career, as he bids farewell to the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine, a city he visited in The Dead Zone, Cujo, The Body, and The Dark Half.

This book is also considered by King to be the final part of an unofficial, loosely-linked trilogy of stories - the first of which was The Dark Half, and the second of which was "The Sun Dog", a short story that was part of his Four Past Midnight collection. As a result, the Sheriff often thinks about Thad Beaumont from The Dark Half.

Needful Things takes most of its plot from Something Wicked This Way Comes,^[1] transposing Mr. Dark and his carnival into Leland Gaunt and his antique store.

Stephen King has said his inspiration for the story was the decadence of the Eighties: "It occurred to me that in the eighties, everything had come with a price tag, that the decade quite literally was the sale of the century. The final items up on the block had been honor, integrity, self-respect, and innocence. ... I decided to turn the eighties into a small-town curio shop called Needful Things and see what happened."

(In chronological order by publication date)

The Dead Zone, 1979

• In the foreword of the novel, an unnamed narrator explains to us that 'not all [our] troubles in Castle Rock are ordinary' and lists several occurrences in Castle Rock that King had written of previously, starting with 'No one has forgotten Frank Dodd, the crossing guard who went crazy here twelve years ago and killed those women.' Johnny Smith ends up breaking this case in The Dead Zone.

• During the final portion of the novel, lightning strikes the Town Common: ". . . blowing the bandstand, where a tormented young man named Johnny Smith had once discovered the name of a killer, to flaming matchwood."

• Polly remembers seeing an ad for a healing "pinwheel gadget" in a copy of "Inside View", a fictional tabloid magazine that tried to recruit Johnny Smith after his psychic powers are publicized.

Cujo, 1981

• There are several references to Cujo in Needful Things, mostly in passing. They also begin in the forward of the novel, where the unnamed narrator goes on: 'the dog. . . the one that came down with rabies and killed Joe Camber and the old rummy down the road from him. The dog killed good old Sheriff George Bannerman, too.'

• Cujo himself is referenced once by name, as is 'the old Camber place'.

• Polly goes to the Camber place and thinks about a small boy and Sheriff Bannerman who died in the dooryard, which is reputed to be haunted. Later, she hears a growl issuing from the barn, and thinks she sees 'two sunken red circles of light perring out', which prompts her to get into her car. The car, for a fraction of a second, will not start. She thinks, wildly, that no one knows where she is. During this period we get a lot of consideration about the characters--from the Cambers to Donna Trenton.

• During the final showdown, Alan makes a shadow shape of a dog, and we're given an aside of how it might just be a Saint Bernard.

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, from Different Seasons, 1982

• In a flashback, Ace Merrill is warned by his uncle, 'Pop', that 'careless people end up in the Shank'. He's later proven correct, as Ace later spends a brief turn in Shawshank.

The Body, from Different Seasons, 1982

• Ace Merrill, who appears in the novel as Mr. Gaunt's 'employee', is the same Ace Merrill who led the group of bullies that tormented Gordon Lachance, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern Tessio, finally confronting them after they find the body; upon Ace's entrance to the story, we're told that "The boys Ace Merrill had once terrorized--boys like Teddy Duchamp, Chris Chambers, and Vern Tessio--would have recognized him at once in spite of his graying hair."

• Ace remembers the happenings of The Body: "He thought back all the way to a time, many years ago, when four snotnosed kids had cheated him and his friends (Ace had had friends back in those days, or at least a reasonable approximation thereof) out of something Ace had wanted. They had caught one of the snotnoses--Gordie LaChance--later on and had beaten the living shit out of him, but it hadn't mattered. These days LaChance was a bigshot writer living in another part of the state, and he probably wiped his ass with ten-dollar bills. Somehow the snotnoses had won, and things had never been the same for Ace after that. That was when his luck had turned bad. Doors that had been open to him had begun to close, one by one. Little by little he had begun to realize that he was not a king and Castle Rock was not his kingdom. If that had ever been true, those days had begun to pass that Labor Day weekend when he was sixteen, when the snots had cheated him and his friends out of what was rightfully theirs. By the time Ace was old enough to drink legally in The Mellow Tiger, he had gone from being a king to being a soldier without a uniform, skulking through enemy territory."

It, 1986

• Nettie Cobb had recently been released from Juniper Hill (on a work-release program with the aid of Polly Chalmers). Juniper Hill is a mental institution/prison for the criminally dangerous. It's where Henry Bowers was put after he murdered his father, and from which he broke free to hunt down the Losers years later.

The Dark Half, 1989

• The character George Stark, Thad Beaumont's alter ego from The Dark Half, makes a cameo appearance in several of Sherriff Pangborn's dreams, driving his trademark black Toronado.

• During the final showdown, Alan creates various shadow animals. The first are birds, and he has a brief thought of how "The sparrows are flying again".

The Sun Dog from Four Past Midnight, 1990

• The fire that destroyed The Emporium Galorium (and killed Reginald 'Pop' Merrill) is referenced in the forward, as well, citing that Pop's nephew Ace 'says somethin' spooky happened to his uncle before that fire'. The Sun Dog chronicles that story, from the 'spooky' occurrence to the fire itself.

• One of the first items that Gaunt stocks is an old Polaroid camera. This may be a nod to The Sun Dog, even though the camera in the Sun Dog was seemingly destroyed. Further, the camera is one of the several of items that are never purchased from Needful Things, which means we never come to know what it does.

Cthulhu Mythos

An interesting subtext in the book is frequent, subtle references to H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, which lends to the possibility that Leland Gaunt may be an avatar of the sadistic shapeshifting deity Nyarlathotep, sometimes associated with Satan by other authors (see also Randall Flagg).

• After giving Ace some very powerful cocaine, Mr. Gaunt tells him that he obtained it from 'The Plains of Leng'. This, perhaps, gives us a clue as to Mr. Gaunt's origins.

• During his trip to Boston under the behest of Mr. Gaunt, Ace Merrill reads the following graffiti: 'Yog-Sothoth Rules'. Given that the phrase is spray-painted on the building where Mr. Gaunt sends Ace, this further supports Mr. Gaunt's connection to the Mythos.

• When asked where he got the Tucker Talisman (by a Mobil Gas jockey), Ace says "The Plains of Leng. Yog-Sothoth Vintage Motors".

Young Guns

• In the hospital, Sean Rusk asks Alan if he's a sheriff like from Young Guns, a movie which starred Kiefer Sutherland, who played Ace Merrill in the film adaption of The Body, Stand By Me.

Dawn of the Dead

• Crime scene onlookers remind Sheriff Alan Pangborn of the "mall zombies from Dawn of the Dead," a movie directed by George Romero. Romero directed Creepshow (from a screenplay written by King) and The Dark Half, a 1993 movie adaptation of King's novel.

Needful Things
MGM Needful Things DVD Cover
Directed by	Fraser Clarke Heston
Produced by	Jack Cummins
Written by	Stephen King (novel) W.D. Richter (screenplay)
Starring	Max von Sydow Ed Harris Bonnie Bedelia
Music by	Patrick Doyle
Cinematography	Tony Westman
Editing by	Rob Kobrin
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	1993
Running time	120 min
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	Unknown
Gross revenue	$15,185,672 (USA)
IMDb profile

A movie adaptation was released in 1993, starring Max von Sydow as Gaunt and Ed Harris as Sheriff Pangborn. Bonnie Bedelia played Polly, Pangborn's girlfriend. It was markedly different from the book, however. Notable differences include the absence of Ace Merril, many of the items bought from Gaunt altered, a number of subplots illustrating the townfolks' peccadilloes and dirty secrets dropped, and Danforth 'Buster' Keeton curiously becoming a sort of hero--if an inept one--who stands up to his tormentor. Also in the movie, Gaunt's influence is attributed to major world crises, such as World War II. At the end Gaunt promises to return to plague Pangborn's descendant, even giving a specific time and place, before his car vanishes at the end of the road.

Cast:

• Max von Sydow .... Leland Gaunt
• Ed Harris .... Sheriff Alan J. Pangborn
• Bonnie Bedelia .... Polly Chalmers
• Amanda Plummer .... Netitia 'Nettie' Cobb
• J.T. Walsh .... Danforth 'Buster' Keeton III
• Ray McKinnon .... Deputy Norris Ridgewick
• Duncan Fraser .... Hugh Albert Priest
• Valri Bromfield .... Wilma Wadlowski Jerzyck
• Shane Meier .... Brian Rusk

• Mr. Gaunt's "employee" Ace Merrill drives a souped-up, lime-green, Dodge Challenger at first, but is later given a mysterious car called a Tucker Talisman(the only car ever produced by Tucker was the Torpedo).
• A teddy bear (belonging to a minor character) is named Owen, presumably after Stephen King's youngest son Owen King.

• Needful Things at the Internet Movie Database